U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, will travel to Istanbul for possible peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Reuters reported on May 13, citing three undisclosed sources.
A captive named Umit allegedly agreed to serve in the Russian army in exchange for Russian citizenship and a monetary reward of 2 million rubles ($25,000).
Russia's Buryatia Republic declared a state of emergency on May 13 over massive forest fires that have engulfed multiple regions in the Russian Far East.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko's statement came as Strong Shield 5 exercises involving military personnel from other NATO countries began in Lithuania.
"Amendments to the Budget Code are needed to implement the provisions on funding the U.S.-Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund," lawmaker Roksolana Pidlasa said.
During reconnaissance in an unspecified front-line sector, Special Operations Forces' operators detected Buk-M3 and Uragan-1 on combat duty, the unit said.
The suspect quit his job at the Rivne NPP before the full-scale war began. In the spring of 2025, a GRU liaison contacted him and offered cooperation in exchange for money.
President Volodymyr Zelensky would not meet any other Russian official apart from Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul this week, presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on the Breakfast Show program on May 13.
U.S. and European officials held talks on May 12, during which Washington made it clear that it wanted to allow talks between Russia and Ukraine before increasing pressure on Vladimir Putin, sources told Bloomberg.
Photo for illustrative purposes. Two soldiers walk among destroyed trees in the morning fog, as the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade 'Edelveys' operate at the zero frontline with infantry holding fire at positions 100 meters below Russian positions, on October 25, 2023 in the Bakhmut district of Ukraine. (Photo by Kostya Liberov/Libkos via Getty Images)
Ukraine's southern counteroffensive on Melitopol in 2023 was sidelined by a push to retake Bakhmut, the New York Times reported on March 29.
Melitopol, a strategically-located city in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast, has been under Russian occupation since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
The Ukrainian military saw its capture as a decisive move — one that could disrupt Russian supply lines and sever the land corridor sustaining Moscow’s grip on Crimea, according to the New York Times' extensive investigation into U.S.-Ukraine strategic planning throughout the full-scale war.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was later named Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, was serving as head of the country’s Ground Forces when he reportedly advocated for a shift in strategy — one that prioritized regaining ground in and around Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast from Russian forces.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who was commander-in-chief at the time, reportedly aligned with the U.S.-backed plan of focusing on the main effort to push towards Melitopol, but the plan was objected to by Syrksyi, whom President Volodymyr Zelensky ultimately sided with.
According to the unnamed U.S. officials cited by the New York Times, Syrskyi also called for only newly-trained brigades to be used on the Melitopol axis, while keeping the experienced brigades initially intended for the southern counteroffensive for his push on Bakhmut.
Although Ukrainian forces did manage to progress around ten kilometers south on the Melitopol axis, they were stopped upon reaching the main line of Russia's network of fortifications built in prepareation for the offensive.
Bakhmut fell to Russian forces in late spring 2023. It would go on to be described as one of the bloodiest battles of the full-scale war. While Ukrainian forces did take back some territory around the destroyed city that summer, the offensive ran out of steam still far away from the goal of retaking Bakhmut.
Ultimately, none of the three axes of the summer counteroffensive, which also included a push in southwestern Donetsk Oblast in the direction of occupied Mariupol, managed to achieve an operational breakthrough.
Since then, apart from Ukraine's attempt to cross the river Dnipro in late 2023 and the surprise cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast in August 2024, — both of which ended in withdrawal — Kyiv has been in a strategic defensive posture, with prospects for a future counteroffensive slim to none.
One Ukrainian official told the New York Times that seeing the decision made to attack Bakhmut was "like watching the demise of the Melitopol offensive even before it was launched," and a senior American official claimed that the U.S. "should have walked away" from advising Ukraine after the change in plan.
Ukraine’s pivotal liberation of most of Kharkiv Oblast in the fall of 2022 reportedly played a crucial role in shaping Syrskyi’s position. The successful operation not only shifted the course of the war but also reportedly bolstered his standing with President Volodymyr Zelensky, cementing his influence in military strategy.
We are the news team of the Kyiv Independent. We are here to make sure our readers get quick, essential updates about the events in Ukraine. Feel free to contact us via email with feedback and news alerts.
Martin Fornusek
